Unfortunately,
Muslims deserve part of the ill-reputation that plaques Islam. How long
can we blame the Westerners OR their media before looking inward? Pay attention
to our own people - so many give others reasons to believe Islam is oppressive
and unjust. Consider the husband who won't let his beaten wife apply for
a passport, the "Islamic Government" that won't let women drive, the "jihad-ers"
who attack men with inadequate beards, fathers who circumcise their little
girls and the bearded immigrant who thinks blowing up public buildings,
killing innocent people - even women and children, is going to prove anything
besides their own irresponsibility.

Our Ummah increasingly
needs to not only study but apply the Quranic principles of peace, love,
forgiveness, brotherhood and rights of women before we "lecture" others;
or else WE ARE ALL CULPRITS IN THIS WAR AGAINST ISLAM. Let's not be living
examples of horrid misconceptions and lies about Islam - let's be examples
that will invite Non-Muslims to learn about the TRUE Islam. The world around
us has just ushered in the new Millenium. More than 1400 years have passed
since the Holy Prophet Muhammad was sent to set any example for mankind
but how very far we have deviated from it.

The Prophet was limited by land and
water yet still spread Islam to all the continents within his lifetime.
Today our means are unlimited. With the click of a button we can send the
message of Islam to any non-Muslim home via a computer.

Murder comes
from Hate,Hate comes
from Fear,Fear comes
from Ignorance.

Islam is wrongly accused of instructing
its followers to be backward, violent, illiterate and extremist. When the
truth of the matter is that Islam is pure but Muslims with distorted practices
are not!

Misinformation is prevalent in text
books, fiction and non-fiction material, reference books, encyclopedias,
magazines, journals, newspapers, television and radio shows.

Let us look at a few examples:

1. A medical
encyclopedia published in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A., mentions Prophet Muhammadís
name (pbuh) among those famous people who were EPILEPTIC.

2. A church
publication in 1981 mentions the Islam in its early Period in the following
words: "The moral looseness of the new faith, the might of the sword, the
fanaticism of the new religion, the shrewdness of Muhammad, the hope of
plunder, the love of wealth, the idea of a sensual paradise have been among
the causes for the spread of Islam which today embraces one sixth of the
world's population."

3. A fourth
grade history text book published in U.S.A. has an article about Prophet
Muhammad (pbuh) with the title, "A CAMEL DRIVER".

The same article
tells children 9 to 10 years of age about the status of women in Islam
in the following words: "...they believe that women should be slaves
to men and that they thought a man might have as many wives as he wished,
all at one time."

The author
tells children about the spread of Islam, "...very soon they began to
force others to become Moslems whether they wanted or not. Like the highway
robber who says, "Money or your life", they gave everyone a choice, "Money
or your life, or be a Muslim."

Obviously adults and children
who read the kind of material would not want to know anything more about
Islam.

Our responsibility is to help open
the minds of people so that they read and learn the truth about Islam
before they even think about accepting it.

The responsibility of Muslims is
to make efforts to remove such fabricated material from circulation
so that the minds of people are not poisoned about Islam but rather opened
to Islam and the atmosphere becomes more amenable to Muslims.

This is a Fard Kifaayah, if no one
does it the entire Muslim Ummah, particularly those living in the West,
will be accountable to Allah for their collusion with anti-Islamic forces
through their inaction (i.e. losing by default)

It is our responsibility to change
this very wrong opinion.We have to show that Islam is NOT represented
by asmall group of fundamentalists.

Please encourage able Muslim brothers
and sisters to use this very powerful tool to defend and spread Islam.

How You Can
Help

1. Please tell as many people as
you can about this website so they may access the information for themselves.

2. Please copy any article you want
from this website and e-mail them to others in order to spread information
quickly and effectively.

3. Please keep yourself informed
so you may speak up on behalf of Islam when need be.

4. Speak up and be heard!

5. Please read through the relevant
text books used in your school district from KG to high school, college
books and reference material and see what the author has to say about Islam
Muslims. If you come across anything erroneous or even doubtful make a
photocopy of the page, write down the names of books, author, publisher,
year of publication or edition and school district where the book is used
and send the information to the The
Institute of Islamic Information & Education. The Institute will
take it from there and will try to keep you informed of the action taken.
For North Americans, CAIR does GREAT similar work, please visit them at
http://www.cair-net.org

Currently there are about
10 Christians for every 1 Muslim on the Net.
It is a Muslim obligation to perform Daw'ah and the Internet is a very
fast, fun and powerful way to do it.